Freed Slaves And Roman Imperial Culture

Download or read book Freed Slaves and Roman Imperial Culture written by Rose MacLean and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the transition from Republic to Empire, the Roman aristocracy adapted traditional values to accommodate the advent of monarchy. Freed Slaves and Roman Imperial Culture examines the ways in which members of the elite appropriated strategies from freed slaves to negotiate their relationship to the princeps and to redefine measures of individual progress. Primarily through the medium of inscribed burial monuments, Roman freedmen entered a broader conversation about power, honor, virtue, memory, and the nature of the human life course. Through this process, former slaves exerted a profound influence on the transformation of aristocratic values at a critical moment in Roman history.